Belle Gibson turns over financial records to consumer watchdog

By Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano

Cancer faker Belle Gibson has turned over financial records and replied to a series of questions about her health claims as Victoria's consumer watchdog steps up its investigation into alleged fundraising fraud.

Ms Gibson was called to appear at the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday as Consumer Affairs sought proof of her company's charitable donations and responses to health-related questions since she admitted her story of cancer survival was a lie.

Belle Gibson had publicly claimed to have given away 25 per cent of her company's profits.Credit:Channel Nine

A Consumer Affairs Victoria spokeswoman said Ms Gibson's court appearance was averted after she provided documents on Thursday. Her responses are now under consideration.

Advertisement

The watchdog began pursuing Ms Gibson after a Fairfax Media investigation revealed the founder of The Whole Pantry smart-phone app and cookbook had withheld thousands of dollars raised for charity through two fundraising appeals.

Through an exclusive fundraising event in St Kilda and an online appeal pledging to donate app-sale proceeds, Ms Gibson solicited money from a fan base of more than 200,000 people in the name of five charities. The promised proceeds were not handed over.

Major cracks in the story she used to build her global business empire emerged within days of the revelations. The 23-year-old has since admitted she does not, and never did, have cancer.

Her Australian and overseas publishers have pulled her new cookbook from shelves and her award-winning app is no longer available for sale.

Ms Gibson's Australian publisher, Penguin, has admitted it never fact-checked her story or asked for evidence of her illness before publishing her cookbook late last year. The app was going to be a feature on Apple's new smart watch but these plans were dumped as the tech giant moved to distance itself from its once-star developer.

Ms Gibson had publicly claimed to have given away 25 per cent of her company's profits and last year claimed $300,000 had already been given to charity. But in March, she admitted these contributions were never made. She blamed "cash flow" problems and lower than forecast sales of her award-winning app - of which there have been more than 300,000 downloads.

When questioned, she was unable to provide a list of organisations that have received money.

At the time, Ms Gibson said "it was with nothing but good intention that we publicised that a percentage of profit from the app will be donated to charity" and that she still "intended" to support the nominated causes "when the cash-flow management is stabilised".

The affected charities said at the time they were shocked Ms Gibson had injected money raised through fundraisers back into her business.

Violations of fundraising law carry heavy penalties, including large fines and jail time.